Ways of Knowing and their Applicability

In: Marketing theory, Volume 2, Issue 2, p. 147-164

Abstract

This article takes the three ways of knowing in science, namely natural history, analysis and experimentation to argue for the importance of selecting the appropriate approach or approaches according to what problems or questions are being addressed. It is claimed that ignoring this guideline leads to invalid findings, inadequate explanations or suboptimal results. The claim is illustrated by a number of current but unsound approaches to marketing problems.